Fifa last night faced potentially damaging fresh accusations of corruption, this time involving Sepp Blatter, the world governing body's president. Jack Warner, once Blatter's right-hand man, said he was awarded lucrative World Cup TV rights for a nominal $1 after assisting Blatter's election as president.

Warner, who ran the game in the Caribbean, claimed that he
refused to back Blatter for this year's election – the 75-year-old
Swiss was re-elected unopposed in June – despite being offered the
2018 and 2022 World Cup rights for Trinidad & Tobago for
another nominal fee. He also said other "inducements" to develop
football in the region were made to him in exchange for backing
Blatter.

Damian Collins, the Conservative MP who sits on the Culture,
Media and Sport Select Committee and has formed a global grouping
of politicians to push for reform at Fifa, last night called for an
investigation. "These are serious allegations that must surely go
to the very top of Fifa and need to be fully and independently
investigated," Collins said.

Fifa told Bloomberg it would "look into" Warner's claims.
Blatter has always denied any wrongdoing during his presidency and
recently has stressed his desire to instigate a change of culture
among Fifa's controversial executive committee.

It has been a challenging year for Blatter. As well as repeated
claims of corruption made against executive committee members,
there was the scandal of the expulsion of Qatari billionaire
Mohamed Bin Hammam first from the election contest and then from
Fifa.